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Chapter One: What it Means to be a Reader Reading truly has different meanings for each of us. This first chapter states that reading tends to fall into 3 categories:
Reading is an act of constructing meaning
Reading is a process
Reading is deeply personal
What does reading mean to you?
Respond Here: Reading has two basic meanings to me. First and foremost, reading is a pleasureable means of finding information and just plain enjoyment. I've alway taken reading for "granted"; I don't remember my life without it. My first memories of reading are that of my mother reading to me each night before bedtime. She would sit by the edge of my bed and take us away into lands far from where we were, into times of happiness and excitment. I've always connected my own reading to this image, many times not knowing so or recognizing it. My second reading "lens" allows me to see reading in a whole new perspective; one of that as a teacher of reading. My students must be able to partake in this skill numerous times within their day. I really can't think of any times we do not include reading into our activities. Throughout the 15 years of my teaching career, I've worked mainly with later elementary students; most come to me with advanced reading skills. It is my job to raise the bar and take them deeper into the world of reading. I do this through vocabulary instruction, specifically domain specific words that connect with the area at hand. May it be science or social studies, we are learning reading skills along the way. During our reading time of the day, I teach them more elaborate skills in hopes of creating lovers of reading and those capable of reading in more advanced ways. Cara1212
What does reading mean to me? Much like p.1 "I believe: Reading is the act of constructing meaning; Reading is a process; and Reading is deeply personal and varies from reader to reader. Reading seems most meaningful to me when I'm able to construct that movie in my head and insert myself into the action. I can feel the sea breeze or the sweltering jungle heat. My pulse races as the action quickens, or I feel sorrow when a boy's dog dies. I connect with the statement on p.2 "Understanding comes from the dialogue that a reader has with the text in the process of constructing meaning." As a teacher that is what I most want to help my students to accomplish; make movies in your head while you read, insert your heart and sole into the action, truly understand what is happening.
Like Cara, I strive to help my students use their reading ability to progress in all subjects. Once a student builds that capacity to make meaning of the written text, they grow in confidence and their ability to share what they they have learned. In the process of becoming successful, classroom management becomes much better. After all, as a teacher, not only do I want better readers, I also want less stress in my classroom and daily work!
Mike
Chapter 1 from Bobbi Friend #1 Reading is all of these three things. First of all, reading is the act of constructing meaning. When I was young and learning to read, it was meant to find out about something. Learning about the aspects of reading and how the letters and sounds worked together took concentration and effort. It was how to put the letters together to have them make a word, and then putting words together to make a sentence that made sense. It is therefore, a process, of putting the pieces together to create meaning. To be able to read print and have the words make meaning it is a process that takes years and years of practice. Reading as an adult is deeply personal. Now that I have mastered all the concepts of how to read, I can use reading to find meaning and it has become deeply personal and I am sure that what I read and how I read would be very different than anyone else. The authors state on page 4 that, “Although all readers are constructing meaning and employing strategies as they read, the decisions they make and the opinions they form vary from reader to reader.” As an adult reader who has her nose in a book as often as possible, I still find the MEAP questions that ask about the author’s purpose the most difficult because the way I construct meaning and my interpretation of what I read is vastly different than what someone else might think. I recently finished reading a novel that was so meaningful to me that I was sobbing as I finished the last chapter. I found the personal connections that I made to the characters and the plot were so strong that I felt like I was experiencing what they were experiencing. That is what reading is for me. I want it to be like that for my students as well.
My meaning of reading has changed tremendously from my adolescence to now adulthood. As a child I took reading for granted also, like Cara1212 mentions, but in a different way. Growing up I enjoyed reading and read often enough but I can’t say I appreciated reading and never counted on it in my life. That sounds sad to say but exploring and being active outside on the farm with brothers consumed my existence far more than reading did. Still, reading was present and enriched my life from the Hardy Boys series, Sports illustrated, and the Encyclopedia set we had to the wonderful teachers and my parents who read to me with excitement and purpose. Now as a first grade teacher I see reading in a whole new light. I love teaching reading mostly because I have fallen in love with reading myself as an adult. Not only do I enjoy my own personal reading but reading and rereading high quality literature to my students enriches my life as much as I hope it does theirs. Reading is the most important skill to have as a human and my goal is to try to make it the most rewarding for each student in their own authentic way. This is a huge challenge for all teachers but without question the most impactful and enlightening. - Garth Trask
I think reading has meant different things to me at different times in my life. As a kindergartner it meant I would have the highly desired honor of taking home my Dick and Jane book to read aloud to my family and friends. I think I just saw reading as a skill to master. I learned that reading had a purpose at home as my Dad and Mom read quality literature to me. I remember reading the Child Craft book series which my parents still keep on the bookshelf for the grandkids. I loved fairytales and developed a sense of empathy from them. I also read the encyclopedia as Garth mentioned. At this stage in my life reading (40 ugg! years later) reading has 2 basic purposes in my life. I love to read a “mindless” novel just to be entertained but I also spend a great deal of time reading to educate myself. I cannot imagine a day without reading! -Jodee tuttle
Reading to me as a child was an escape. I could take a book and be transported to an other world for a few hours. As I got older I realized reading gave insight into the world around me. As stated in the book I was constructing meaning. Reading is a process, as I grew physically and mentally I expanded my search for more meaningful texts, I compare the process to a building. Some how the strategies I learned along the way created a foundation that has made me a lifelong reader. Finally, I will read anything and everything. It is personal. My reading is based on my need for more information.
Margaret Fox
I think it's interesting how almost everyone responded that reading meant different things to them at different points in their lives. I can relate to that as I reflect on my experience as a life-long reader, and what reading means to me. Many of my fondest memories as a child invovle reading. I remember sitting on my dad's lap in his lazy-boy listening to him read "I am a Mouse" over and over again. I also remember my mom taking us to the library on hot summer days and getting lost in all of the books in the children's section. I think about listening to books on tape with my sister, and reading box car children on our couch at our cottage. I guess at that point in my life, reading meant sharing time with my loved ones, getting lost in the characters and stories. Now as I raise my own chlidren, I find reading as a way for us to snuggle up, laugh, and enjoy a story together. As an adult reader who prefers nonfiction over fiction, reading has now become a way to access information, communicate with others, and solve problems. Because life seems so busy, I find that I only read for a specific purpose, rarely for pleasure (unless, or course, I'm reading with my girls). It might be reading a text from my husband about who is picking up milk at the store, reading Food Network Magazine to get new ideas for dinner, reading MSN to catch up on the news, reading my e-mail at work, reading to get some advice about how to handle my 18 month old's tantrums, or diving into a text about teaching reading (that's my "reading for pleasure"). So at this point in my life, reading has two purposes: reading for pleasure with my girls, and reading to get information about something relevant to my life. ~Stephanie B.
Like many people said, reading has always been a part of my life. I don’t remember learning to read, but I do remember spending hours doing so. I especially loved the Babysitters Club series. Not exactly thought provoking, but I liked the predictability and familiarity of the characters. I felt like I knew them; like I was experiencing things along with them. As Stephanie mentioned my reading focus has shifted. Free time is a rare commodity and fiction/recreational reading does not happen near as often as it once did. I can relate when she says reading is non-fiction based. I read what has a purpose in my life. I believe this is true when children are exposed to nonfiction text as well. They choose topics that have meaning for them, which sometimes allows them to read texts slightly above their just right level. Having a vested interest in a topic can make reading harder text attainable. I don’t recall hearing the terms visualization, connections, inferring, and the like used when I was in school. I’m sure we were taught these strategies, but the name was kept secret. Reading requires these things. Without them, no meaning is being constructed, no thoughts are taking place. Stephanie Cooper
For me, reading is very personal. As others have mentioned I don’t remember not ever reading. Growing up, one of my dads favorite stories was that I would go to the library and start reading the books on the way home. He would yell at me and tell me I had to wait to get home before I could start reading. So instead, I cut through the fields to get home so I could still read. As an adult there are many books and authors that are my favorites and reading is a great way to spend some time. I love sharing my enjoyment with my grandchildren as well as the students in my class. Sue Ronning
Different from most everyone else that said that they were life long readers and have always loved it, I have only read a few books while growing up that really made me feel like I was a part of the story and couldn't put it down. I was a very busy child and would much rather be outside participating in sports and horseback riding than sitting down with a book. I think that it is sometimes hard for me to construct meaning of some of the books I read because I am not into it personally. I still would rather be active and when I do slow down to read I usually fall asleep during the attempt. To this day, I still can't say I love to read and usually find it as a chore more than I do for enjoyment. I do tend to like magazines more than books because I can skip around and read what articles interest me. Ronda
To me being a reader unlocks the world. The world has different interest to different people. But without reading no connection can be made between those interests. Chapter on shortly and to the point describes read: constructs meaning, a process, and is very personal. I like Stephanies comment about the things that were kept secret--terms--and they sure were. Kdn
Reading for me has also changed through the years. In elementary school, my friend Stacey and I would devour every book we found. We'd have races, seeing who could read the most books. We'd run to the library to get certain books before the other. We read series after series. We also read comic book forms of the classics. It was always an adventure. Once I hit secondary school, reading was definitely more for information. I am sad to say that I pretty much stopped reading for fun. It became a chore. In my later years in high school, my Dad introduced me to Tolkien. I was once again hooked. I was even more excited to find a modern mythology class that covered the trilogy. I was in heaven! From my college days to present, I have remained a reader. I will say I tend to stick to one genre, and I do not always read, as it tends to go in streaks depending on what life hands me, but I will say that I will do all that I can to make sure my students read. I will make sure they learn strategies to read for meaning. I will make sure and show them my enthusiasm for reading, giving them opportunities to read and love it as much as I do. TGaribay
Reading is a process in which I construct meaning in a deeply personal way. As the authors noted on paged 2, the “ongoing dialogue between the reader and the text” is how meaning is constructed during reading. Like Stephanie C., I read the Babysitter’s Club series growing up. I often found myself having a dialogue with the text. I would talk back to the characters and felt that I really knew them because of my connections to them and feelings for them. The reading I’ve done has formed layers upon which I stand. Similar to Susan C’s essay titled “Eleven” in which she writes that at eleven, you’re still 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, I feel like that as a reader. The meaning I constructed and processes I used as a child, teen, and now as an adult are like the rings around a tree or layers in an onion. All these layers, all of what I’ve read and resonated with over the years, have affected me in a deeply personal way. Books have given me creative ideas and influenced my interest in babysitting which ultimately lead to teaching. Books have influenced my thinking about positive thinking and healthy choices and therefore my life. Books have deepened my relationships with others and set me from some. Reading is truly a gift! It’s a gift that I am grateful to share and encourage with young, impressionable readers! Sara Sabourin
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Chapter One: What it Means to be a Reader
Reading truly has different meanings for each of us. This first chapter states that reading tends to fall into 3 categories:
What does reading mean to you?
Respond Here:
Reading has two basic meanings to me. First and foremost, reading is a pleasureable means of finding information and just plain enjoyment. I've alway taken reading for "granted"; I don't remember my life without it. My first memories of reading are that of my mother reading to me each night before bedtime. She would sit by the edge of my bed and take us away into lands far from where we were, into times of happiness and excitment. I've always connected my own reading to this image, many times not knowing so or recognizing it.
My second reading "lens" allows me to see reading in a whole new perspective; one of that as a teacher of reading. My students must be able to partake in this skill numerous times within their day. I really can't think of any times we do not include reading into our activities. Throughout the 15 years of my teaching career, I've worked mainly with later elementary students; most come to me with advanced reading skills. It is my job to raise the bar and take them deeper into the world of reading. I do this through vocabulary instruction, specifically domain specific words that connect with the area at hand. May it be science or social studies, we are learning reading skills along the way. During our reading time of the day, I teach them more elaborate skills in hopes of creating lovers of reading and those capable of reading in more advanced ways.
Cara1212
What does reading mean to me? Much like p.1 "I believe: Reading is the act of constructing meaning; Reading is a process; and Reading is deeply personal and varies from reader to reader. Reading seems most meaningful to me when I'm able to construct that movie in my head and insert myself into the action. I can feel the sea breeze or the sweltering jungle heat. My pulse races as the action quickens, or I feel sorrow when a boy's dog dies. I connect with the statement on p.2 "Understanding comes from the dialogue that a reader has with the text in the process of constructing meaning." As a teacher that is what I most want to help my students to accomplish; make movies in your head while you read, insert your heart and sole into the action, truly understand what is happening.
Like Cara, I strive to help my students use their reading ability to progress in all subjects. Once a student builds that capacity to make meaning of the written text, they grow in confidence and their ability to share what they they have learned. In the process of becoming successful, classroom management becomes much better. After all, as a teacher, not only do I want better readers, I also want less stress in my classroom and daily work!
Mike
Chapter 1 from Bobbi Friend #1 Reading is all of these three things. First of all, reading is the act of constructing meaning. When I was young and learning to read, it was meant to find out about something. Learning about the aspects of reading and how the letters and sounds worked together took concentration and effort. It was how to put the letters together to have them make a word, and then putting words together to make a sentence that made sense. It is therefore, a process, of putting the pieces together to create meaning. To be able to read print and have the words make meaning it is a process that takes years and years of practice.
Reading as an adult is deeply personal. Now that I have mastered all the concepts of how to read, I can use reading to find meaning and it has become deeply personal and I am sure that what I read and how I read would be very different than anyone else. The authors state on page 4 that, “Although all readers are constructing meaning and employing strategies as they read, the decisions they make and the opinions they form vary from reader to reader.” As an adult reader who has her nose in a book as often as possible, I still find the MEAP questions that ask about the author’s purpose the most difficult because the way I construct meaning and my interpretation of what I read is vastly different than what someone else might think. I recently finished reading a novel that was so meaningful to me that I was sobbing as I finished the last chapter. I found the personal connections that I made to the characters and the plot were so strong that I felt like I was experiencing what they were experiencing. That is what reading is for me. I want it to be like that for my students as well.
My meaning of reading has changed tremendously from my adolescence to now adulthood. As a child I took reading for granted also, like Cara1212 mentions, but in a different way. Growing up I enjoyed reading and read often enough but I can’t say I appreciated reading and never counted on it in my life. That sounds sad to say but exploring and being active outside on the farm with brothers consumed my existence far more than reading did. Still, reading was present and enriched my life from the Hardy Boys series, Sports illustrated, and the Encyclopedia set we had to the wonderful teachers and my parents who read to me with excitement and purpose. Now as a first grade teacher I see reading in a whole new light. I love teaching reading mostly because I have fallen in love with reading myself as an adult. Not only do I enjoy my own personal reading but reading and rereading high quality literature to my students enriches my life as much as I hope it does theirs. Reading is the most important skill to have as a human and my goal is to try to make it the most rewarding for each student in their own authentic way. This is a huge challenge for all teachers but without question the most impactful and enlightening. - Garth Trask
I think reading has meant different things to me at different times in my life. As a kindergartner it meant I would have the highly desired honor of taking home my Dick and Jane book to read aloud to my family and friends. I think I just saw reading as a skill to master. I learned that reading had a purpose at home as my Dad and Mom read quality literature to me. I remember reading the Child Craft book series which my parents still keep on the bookshelf for the grandkids. I loved fairytales and developed a sense of empathy from them. I also read the encyclopedia as Garth mentioned. At this stage in my life reading (40 ugg! years later) reading has 2 basic purposes in my life. I love to read a “mindless” novel just to be entertained but I also spend a great deal of time reading to educate myself. I cannot imagine a day without reading! -Jodee tuttle
Reading to me as a child was an escape. I could take a book and be transported to an other world for a few hours. As I got older I realized reading gave insight into the world around me. As stated in the book I was constructing meaning. Reading is a process, as I grew physically and mentally I expanded my search for more meaningful texts, I compare the process to a building. Some how the strategies I learned along the way created a foundation that has made me a lifelong reader. Finally, I will read anything and everything. It is personal. My reading is based on my need for more information.
Margaret Fox
I think it's interesting how almost everyone responded that reading meant different things to them at different points in their lives. I can relate to that as I reflect on my experience as a life-long reader, and what reading means to me. Many of my fondest memories as a child invovle reading. I remember sitting on my dad's lap in his lazy-boy listening to him read "I am a Mouse" over and over again. I also remember my mom taking us to the library on hot summer days and getting lost in all of the books in the children's section. I think about listening to books on tape with my sister, and reading box car children on our couch at our cottage. I guess at that point in my life, reading meant sharing time with my loved ones, getting lost in the characters and stories. Now as I raise my own chlidren, I find reading as a way for us to snuggle up, laugh, and enjoy a story together.
As an adult reader who prefers nonfiction over fiction, reading has now become a way to access information, communicate with others, and solve problems. Because life seems so busy, I find that I only read for a specific purpose, rarely for pleasure (unless, or course, I'm reading with my girls). It might be reading a text from my husband about who is picking up milk at the store, reading Food Network Magazine to get new ideas for dinner, reading MSN to catch up on the news, reading my e-mail at work, reading to get some advice about how to handle my 18 month old's tantrums, or diving into a text about teaching reading (that's my "reading for pleasure"). So at this point in my life, reading has two purposes: reading for pleasure with my girls, and reading to get information about something relevant to my life. ~Stephanie B.
Like many people said, reading has always been a part of my life. I don’t remember learning to read, but I do remember spending hours doing so. I especially loved the Babysitters Club series. Not exactly thought provoking, but I liked the predictability and familiarity of the characters. I felt like I knew them; like I was experiencing things along with them.
As Stephanie mentioned my reading focus has shifted. Free time is a rare commodity and fiction/recreational reading does not happen near as often as it once did. I can relate when she says reading is non-fiction based. I read what has a purpose in my life. I believe this is true when children are exposed to nonfiction text as well. They choose topics that have meaning for them, which sometimes allows them to read texts slightly above their just right level. Having a vested interest in a topic can make reading harder text attainable.
I don’t recall hearing the terms visualization, connections, inferring, and the like used when I was in school. I’m sure we were taught these strategies, but the name was kept secret. Reading requires these things. Without them, no meaning is being constructed, no thoughts are taking place.
Stephanie Cooper
For me, reading is very personal. As others have mentioned I don’t remember not ever reading. Growing up, one of my dads favorite stories was that I would go to the library and start reading the books on the way home. He would yell at me and tell me I had to wait to get home before I could start reading. So instead, I cut through the fields to get home so I could still read. As an adult there are many books and authors that are my favorites and reading is a great way to spend some time. I love sharing my enjoyment with my grandchildren as well as the students in my class.
Sue Ronning
Different from most everyone else that said that they were life long readers and have always loved it, I have only read a few books while growing up that really made me feel like I was a part of the story and couldn't put it down. I was a very busy child and would much rather be outside participating in sports and horseback riding than sitting down with a book. I think that it is sometimes hard for me to construct meaning of some of the books I read because I am not into it personally. I still would rather be active and when I do slow down to read I usually fall asleep during the attempt. To this day, I still can't say I love to read and usually find it as a chore more than I do for enjoyment. I do tend to like magazines more than books because I can skip around and read what articles interest me. Ronda
To me being a reader unlocks the world. The world has different interest to different people. But without reading no connection can be made between those interests. Chapter on shortly and to the point describes read: constructs meaning, a process, and is very personal. I like Stephanies comment about the things that were kept secret--terms--and they sure were. Kdn
Reading for me has also changed through the years. In elementary school, my friend Stacey and I would devour every book we found. We'd have races, seeing who could read the most books. We'd run to the library to get certain books before the other. We read series after series. We also read comic book forms of the classics. It was always an adventure. Once I hit secondary school, reading was definitely more for information. I am sad to say that I pretty much stopped reading for fun. It became a chore. In my later years in high school, my Dad introduced me to Tolkien. I was once again hooked. I was even more excited to find a modern mythology class that covered the trilogy. I was in heaven! From my college days to present, I have remained a reader. I will say I tend to stick to one genre, and I do not always read, as it tends to go in streaks depending on what life hands me, but I will say that I will do all that I can to make sure my students read. I will make sure they learn strategies to read for meaning. I will make sure and show them my enthusiasm for reading, giving them opportunities to read and love it as much as I do. TGaribay
Reading is a process in which I construct meaning in a deeply personal way. As the authors noted on paged 2, the “ongoing dialogue between the reader and the text” is how meaning is constructed during reading. Like Stephanie C., I read the Babysitter’s Club series growing up. I often found myself having a dialogue with the text. I would talk back to the characters and felt that I really knew them because of my connections to them and feelings for them. The reading I’ve done has formed layers upon which I stand. Similar to Susan C’s essay titled “Eleven” in which she writes that at eleven, you’re still 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, I feel like that as a reader. The meaning I constructed and processes I used as a child, teen, and now as an adult are like the rings around a tree or layers in an onion. All these layers, all of what I’ve read and resonated with over the years, have affected me in a deeply personal way. Books have given me creative ideas and influenced my interest in babysitting which ultimately lead to teaching. Books have influenced my thinking about positive thinking and healthy choices and therefore my life. Books have deepened my relationships with others and set me from some. Reading is truly a gift! It’s a gift that I am grateful to share and encourage with young, impressionable readers!
Sara Sabourin